I have to disagree with Trisha on this, since I frequently use plastic
buckets for primary fermentation. I know what Trisha's talking about,
since I've seen the "old bucket problem" with beer, and I've tossed batches
of beer in the past. But I've not seen it with meads, and I've got one
bucket I've been using for several years now.

OK, so what's going on? I suppose there's a side question of why I use
plastic in the first place. I use it for melomels, because honestly it's
enough hassle dealing with 10-15 lb of fruit which has broken down due to
fermentation, let alone trying to get it out through the little hole in a
carboy after racking. (I always do fruit in the primary, right at the very
start.) I wouldn't use plastic for a plain mead; no point in it.

This suggests the possibility that there *is* a real contamination problem
with plastic, but that it doesn't happen in the much-more-acid melomel
musts…or that fermentation takes off so fast it can fight contamination.
(I think I like the former guess better than the latter, but I'm not sure
I buy either one.)

One word from Brian's article starts me thinking: "phenolic". Is there
any chance, Brian, that you're not using food-grade plastic? DON'T just
use any random 5-gallon plastic container…if it's not made for food, you
may be leaching out plasticizers and all manner of unpleasant stuff.

Even with food-grade plastic, I think I'd take care to get the mead out of
the plastic and into glass within a week. If the issue is real fruit, it
is generally spent within a few days anyway.

Beyond that, Brian: What variables can you find that differ between your
one- and five-gallon batches? ANYthing different is a possible candidate–
temperature, ability to mix, racking…go over your process with a fine-
toothed comb.

• —

Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Boulder County, Colorado USA

Ric Loll – Stuck in Guam, a land without honey bees 🙁
Ric and Joanne Loll Magnus McFhinonleigh & Michelina la Rosa D'Oro
rnjloll@ite.net Stronghold of World's Edge, The West

All opinions expressed are done as simple, humble humans…

++++ Honor: Do what you SAY, Say what you MEAN, Mean what you DO! ++++

> >Has anyone tried making pumpkin mead/wine, and how did it turn out?
> >Doug Thomas
>
> Here is a recipe from MLD #358. — Joyce
>
>
> The Great Pumpkin
>
> Source: Lee Bussy <leeb@southwind.net>
> Mead Lover's Digest #358, 23 October 1994

Hey that's Me! 🙂

I *am* still alive. I was wondering if you (Joyce) ever got my email
about that way back when. All I can add to this is it seems to take
a long time to clear and cooking the pumpkin is not recommended. It
adds a "squashy" character to the mead (or beer for that matter).

I have had some aquaintences use canned pumpkin with reportedly good
results but I have never tried them myself.

And…. I have been trying to pull some archived digests (the .Z
ones) and have had mixed results uncompressing them. Can someone
lend a hand (in E-mail of course). I have been trying GZip with
varying degrees of success. TIA.

• —

Lee C. Bussy
lee@roadkill.org
http://www2.southwind.net/~leeb

* Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual
* world as masturbation to sexual love. -Karl Marx (1818-83)

• –Andrew

Mail or post ok

A friend with mead is a friend indeed…

Mark Lindberg, CK Brew
ckbrew@ime.net

> ——————————
>
> Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #490, 23 July 1996
> From: CLSAXER@aol.com
> Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 03:27:51 -0400
>
> In Mead Lovers Digest # 490 Dan McC quotes a Braggot receipe from Fred
> Hardy. Everything is there except for a recomended yeast type. What type
> of yeast is recomended?

If it was one of my recipes the yeast was probably Wyeast #1728 – Scottish
Ale Yeast. A remote possibility (which also works well) is Lalvin K1-V116
(K1V). Those are the only two I use now for meads. I generally use the
Scottish for braggot and the K1V for meads, ciders, cysers and the like.

Don't let that influence you if you have an ale or wine yeast you like.
Almost any will do, though I wouldn't recommend dry beer yeasts (too
likely to be contaminated).

> ——————————
>
> Subject: more braggot questions
> From: chaucer@erinet.com (Neal Dunsieth)
> Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 09:20:16 -0400
>
> After reading the braggot cross-talk I am wondering more about basics
> than fine points. How many pounds of ingredients (per gallon) should
> you use to start? What should your SG be? You know, more nuts and
> bolts stuff.

Russell Mast and I fully agree that braggot is a wide open field, so the
answer is sorta do your own thing. My research and experimentation have
led me to infer the following guidelines.

Calculate SG contribution of malt to be around 1.046-48 (5.5 – 6 dP).
Add honey to get a target gravity of 1.075-85 (9.25 – 10.5 dP). Dry malt
extract should hit the malt requirement with 1 – 1.25 pounds per gallon.
Adding 1 pound of honey per gallon should get the must to around 1.080-85.
Ferment and you have braggot. If you are mashing, the amount of grain you
use will depend upon type and your brewhouse efficiency.

50% SG from malt and 50% from honey seems to work well.

Healthy liquid ale yeast from a starter works very well. I suggest Wyeast
#1728 [Scottish], Wyeast #1084 [Irish] and/or Wyeast #1056
[American/Chico].. All will manage the braggot alcohol levels and leave
sufficient residual malty sweetness.

Initial fermentation is usually about 2-4 weeks. Secondary should be
90-120 days. Add a hit of fresh yeast with the priming fluid if you want
sparkling braggot. Bottle and be patient. It'll be drinkable in 10-12
days, but really good in about 3 months after bottling.

Wildflower honey is neat. Use 30% orange blossom and 70% wildflower for a
really unusual, almost wine-like flavor when used with dark malt extract.

Like I said, do your own thing. Herbs & spices? Why not? How about fruits?
OK, but I don't think the effect will be as nice as herbs and spices.

> Are there any good books that talk about making braggot?

None that I have found. Hopefully, mine will be the first :-).

Cheers, Fred

We must invent the future, else it will | <Fred Hardy>
happen to us and we will not like it. |
[Stafford Beer, "Platform for Change"] | email: fcmbh@access.digex.net

Any help or direction is appreciated. I am interested in mail-ordering
their products, so any experiece with that would also be appreciated.

Reply by email — I can forward all information to other interested
parties.

thanks,
Paul
pkensler@ix.netcom.com

I have made my first mead and I have a couple of questions concerning
bottling (wine bottles with corks).
Does it matter if the bottles lay flat or upright?
I noticed that the ends of the corks in some bottles appear to have
mold on the ends (black blotches). Is it mold/fungi? Is it over for
these bottles? I boiling the corks.
Thanks for any info.

Several months ago I read an article in either the HBD or the MLD. The
article was by someone who I knew to be an accomplished meadmaker (I
*thought* it was by Dan McConnell or Ken Schramm), but I don't remember
who. The article discussed the speed of mead fermentation, and stated that
as long as the mead Ph was kept above 4.0, the mead would ferment rapidly.
In fact, the article talked about fermentations regularly taking no longer
than two (that's 2!) weeks.

Did I dream this?

I've used search engines to search both the homebrew and mead digests for
all of 1996, and I still can't find it.

Did I dream this? Did anyone else see it?

Cheers,
Chuck
chuckmw@mcs.com
Geneva, IL
* RM 1.3 00946 *

Love the list… it was a great pleasure to find… I've been lurking for
the past month or so and finally have comments/questions…

I'm about to add around 6.5 lbs of freshly picked blackberries into a mead I
pitched last night… I find that adding the fruit without boiling or
pastuerizing results in cleaner fruit character. Adding the berries after
the mead is pitched lessens the chance of bacterial fermentation due to the
agressive yeasties in full bloom. What think others on this subject, i.e.
when is the best time to introduce the fruits??? Does it really matter??

Another question.. I saw a reference saying that blackberry meads tend to
make the final product too acidic which should be corrected by inducing
malolactic fermentation??? What is this?? All my Blackberry Meads have come
out great in the past (and are, in fact, my favourite Melomel)… could
they be improved using this technique??

Cheers….

James Holling
james@globe.apfnet.org

Divinity Exists in Every Mead…..